Newly released church records show that a credibly accused child molesting cleric, Fr. Joseph B. DiPeri, worked at your school/parish. He also worked in Jersey City, Newark, and Garfield (all in the Newark archdiocese.) He may well have also been assigned to or done substitute work in other parishes or Catholic institutions.

We in SNAP suspect you and/or your staff has known these facts – and maybe more facts - for years. If so, shame on you for your years of reckless, self-serving silence.

Regardless, we believe that you and your staff now have a duty to aggressively reach out to

--others who may have suffered DiPeri’s crimes, and

--others who may have seen or suspected or concealed DiPeri’s crimes.

New Jersey men or women may have been sexually assaulted by him. If so, those victims may still be suffering in shame, silence and self-blame. They need – and deserve – to know that they are not alone, the abuse was not their fault, and that recovery is possible. Your outreach may help achieve this.

DiPeri is deceased. He cannot be prosecuted. But other current or former church employees who may have ignored or hidden their crimes might also be prosecuted, thus deterring such irresponsible, illegal and hurtful actions in the future.

So for these reasons, and others, we implore you to act.

Each of you has resources. You control or have access to parish bulletins, church websites, school newsletters, diocesan newspapers and pulpit announcements. It would be easy and inexpensive for each of you to do aggressive outreach to find – and help - other victims of the clerics (and potentially help police and prosecutors build criminal cases against anyone who may have hidden DiPeri’s crimes).

Here’s more about Fr. DiPeri:

A Los Angeles newspaper last week reported that “the last known information indicates (DiPeri) was in a retirement home for priests in New Jersey.” He worked “at churches in Jersey City, Newark and Garfield and was a teacher at Oratory Preparatory School in Summit and a principal at St. Cecilia’s School in Englewood,” according to the Star Ledger (which disclosed DiPeri’s presence in New Jersey just last week).

We hope you will take your responsibilities as leaders, pastors and shepherds seriously. We hope you will take action soon to help heal the wounded (by seeking out those who may have suffered DiPeri’s crimes) and help protect the vulnerable (by seeking out those who may have seen or suspected or concealed DiPeri’s crimes).

Create an account

When you say " you hope you will take your responsibilities as leaders, pastors, and shepards seriously, I can’t believe that you would believe they would care " one flip" about what you or any of us say. . Plus you separate leaders, pastors and shepards in a way that makes them different. They all are the in the same catagorie and must be held to the highest standard over all. Jesus Christ speaks of this in HISWORD.